Online banking frauds more than doubled in three yrs: Govt

Online banking frauds are on the rise, with the number of cases more than doubling over the past three years, Parliament was informed today.

The number of Internet frauds rose from 102 in 2007 to 113 in the following year and 269 in 2009, involving an amount of Rs 2.51 crore, Rs 5.53 crore and Rs 5.90 crore, respectively, Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

"It may be observed that there has been an increase in the number of frauds perpetrated during the (previous) year as compared to 2007 and 2008," he said.

The minister said the RBI has cited compromises on password and other safety measures as the main reason for the occurrence of such frauds.

He said that the RBI has already taken measures to check such frauds, such as making it mandatory for banks to put in place a system for providing additional authentication and validation, an online alert system for card holders in case of transactions of a value of over Rs 5,000, redressal of grievances for wrongful billing and reporting of cases to police and ensuring follow-up action.